Minimizing the Hiring Process for Salespeople

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tue, 05/24/2011

The first step in finding candidates for an open sales position at your company can come through referrals. Who do your current staff members know who will fit on the team? Ask them to consider the personality of the team. Will their referral mix well? What about their passion for sales and opportunities? Do they have sales experience? Do they have experience in your industry?

If your sales staff has limitations on referrals, broaden the base with the same request. Other staff members in other departments may have knowledge of people they feel would fit the role. Your next option would be to post the position on websites appropriate to your industry, as well as sites of major job boards.

Keep the pool of candidates to a workable size, possibly twenty or less. Attempt to have all candidates interview for the position within a one week period. Lengthening this initial process may make it difficult to compare one candidate to the next. Have the candidates meet with the Human Resources department first, and then the hiring manager second.

Develop a Score Sheet for the Hiring Process

To make a fairer comparison amongst candidates, develop a chart to keep track of how the candidates perform. This may not be the deciding factor, but it will help you recall faster when narrowing the field. The questions you ask of the candidates should be directly related to the score sheet you develop. Possibly passion is an important personality trait you are looking for in your future staff member. Then get the candidates to talk about something they are passionate about and then at the conclusion of the interview give them a score on their score sheet.

Narrow the field as quickly as possible and set up a round of final interviews. Maybe narrow to five candidates. A good salesperson should be able to sell anything! Have them each sell you the same thing. It can be simple like the paperweight on your desk. Narrow to your choice and always have a second person as a backup. Remember, if you think your final candidate is good, so does your competition. If they choose to go with your competitor, you have your second choice in line to bring on board.

Orient the New Employee to Your Company

The hiring process will be completely minimized if you are able to retain the employee for a considerable amount of time. Give the new employee a thorough orientation to your company when they arrive. Depending on the path they have taken to your company, this should include sales training, to get them up to speed with your other staff members as quick as possible. Each time you hire a new salesperson will vary, but this same process can be the base for limiting the time of interviewing and spending more time on selling.

What are your challenges when it comes to interviewing and hiring salespeople for your company? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time …